One Last Time together
by Alan Bates
Summary: Aeris returns to Cloud but she can't stay.


Standard Stupid disclaimer: final fantasy and all characters involved are the property of SQUARE.   
  
  
  
One last time together  
  
As the sun rose in the sky, the ex-mercenary Cloud, sat alone in a poorly lit room polishing his buster sword. He hadn't been sleeping much recently. Three weeks ago, he and his friends saved the world. Then they went back to their own lives. There was too much pain left in them to celebrate and too much for them to do to stay together. Cloud was still wondered what it was he should do. Tifa had offered to let him stay with her and, after that didn't work, she offered him an unused storage room above her bar. Cloud couldn't except. She was nice and everything, but he wasn't ready.   
  
"One day...." he said to himself aloud, "maybe one day when it doesn't hurt so much.....I can see myself going to her....sweeping her up in my arms...maybe...after I forget her" he stopped the his train of thought and tried to smile to keep himself from crying. The tears came as they always did. He looked around the room for something he had that would remind him of her. He desperatley needed something to hold. Something of hers. All he had was a now-useless piece of materia she once used. It was enough. He held it as tightly to himself as he could and wished and prayed and apologized. There was a knock at the door.   
"Go the $%@##!! away" he shouted through his tears. The knocking continued.   
  
"please?" a voice from the other side said. Wipeing his eyes, he picked up the buster sword sword. It felt almost to heavy to lift.   
  
"Who ever this is," he thought "You'll learn to leave me alone," even he wasn't sure whether he meant to hurt the person or just frighten them. He unlatched the door and swung it open violently. His eyes grew wide and the sword clattered to the ground. Speechless he stared.  
  
"Well aren't you going to invite me in?" Aeris asked him. Cloud didn't know what to think. he remembered holding her in his arms and watching her die, helpless to do anything.   
  
"I know. It's a shock but I wanted to surprise you." Aeris merrily took him by the hand and led him to his rented bed were they both sat down. Cloud sat there for a second and then jumped up to his feet. Grasping her, he lifted her off the bed and into the air.   
  
"YOU'RE ALIVE!!!!! YOU'RE ALIVE!!! HOW?! WHY?!!" Cloud spun her around the room. He was smiling more at this moment that she had ever seen him do in all the time they had known each other.  
  
"hey hey, calm down," the flower girl said trying to catch her breath as Cloud placed her back onto her feet. She braced herself. This might hurt him more than she wanted. "I'm sorry Cloud but I did die. You saw me. They said I could only come back for a little while. You see everyone one who dies gets one last look at life before they pass to the other side. The difference of course being that I got to actually come back instead of just seeing it. This was the Planets gift to us. You saved..."  
  
Cloud interrupted her "we..we saved" Aeris smiled at him and continued   
  
"we saved the planet and as a reward we each get one gift. This is yours and mine. We get to spend more time together. But I can't stay." the message only sunk a little bit into Cloud. The love of his life was back and he was the happiest man on the planet right now.  
  
"Let's go. Let's go see the others." He was smiling and beaming as he tried to decide whether to dress in his old battle uniform or just more casually. Aeris blushed.   
  
"I'd rather not. This is hard enough, you know? Besides this is time for you and me. Tell them about me after I leave again, okay?"  
  
"Okay, not an problem. Although Barret will never believe me."  
  
She giggled slightly. "yeah and Cid will probably think you got drunk and spent the night talking to a statue or something."  
  
Cloud had decided by this point to wear the basic uniform minus weapons metal shoulder pad. it seemed proper somehow. "yeah Cid thinks just because he's a hopeless foul mouthed drunk, everybody else is too. Well except Yuffie and you. You should have heard some of the things that he called Sephiroth after he kill...ed....." An awkward pause filled the room.  
  
"Let's not talk about that right now. Are you hungry? I haven't had anything to eat in about two months," Aeris joked. It took Cloud a moment to get it.   
  
"Some of the breakfast places are opened up. or we could go to Tifa's bar."  
  
"I was hoping for something more like a picnic." Aeris smiled.   
  
A few short stops for food and supplies and they were on their way. They stopped in a little meadow they once passed by, what seemed like a lifetime ago. Jumping over an abandoned stone fence they found a quite place in the shade overlooking the valley.   
  
"So how is everybody? I can sometimes watch you and sometimes hear you from the life stream but that doesn't always help."  
  
"Well let's see.....Barret has settled down considerably and his girl..."  
  
"Marlene?"  
  
"No not her....actually I guess you never met this girl. Barret is dating now. He's cleaned up considerably. Reeve even hooked him up with one of these," Cloud says raising his mechanical hand into the air.   
  
"Well that's good. And Reeve?"  
  
"trying to start back up the government." Cloud smiled big and grabbed an apple "get this" he took a bite "he's got the Turks working for him."   
  
"No!"  
  
"Yeah. And it gets better. Vincent is leading them."  
  
"Well I didn't see that one coming." Aeris laid her head down in Cloud's lap. "Did he offer any spots to you? I think you'd make a great diplomat. Since you're so good with people"   
  
"Stop teasing," Cloud purposely took a larger bit than he needed out of the apple and the juice sprayed down onto Aeris's head. "hey you got something on your face."  
  
"Gee wonder how that happened."  
  
"No he didn't offer me a place. Barret, Cid and Yuffie all got offers, though."   
  
"Well why not you?"  
  
"I was sort of a downer at that time and quite depressing." Cloud pulled out some grapes and dropped a few into Aeris's mouth were she caught them with glee.  
  
"hard to believe that you, Mr. Sunshine himself would be a downer." A sterner look came over Clouds face.   
  
"You don't know how hard it was going on without you. It weighed down on all of us."  
  
"I'm sorry" Aeris rose from his lap and looked back at him. Even remembering those times was hurting him, she could tell. Perhaps coming back was a mistake after all. Cloud was visibly trying to shake the memories from himself and forced a smile.   
  
"Not your fault. I understand that now."  
  
"It wasn't your fault either..." Aeris told him looking into his eyes.  
  
"I know that..... Sometimes, other time it just feels like everything went wrong."  
  
"HEY! We're supposed to be happy here today remember? I got something that will cheer you up." she reached into a pocket inside her dress and pulled out a little bottle of champagne. They continued talking about past friends and eating their picnic.  
  
Later after they finished eating and sat held in each other's arms, Aeris looked up and asked him a question. "How do you feel about Tifa?" Cloud practically did a double take.   
  
"What?"  
  
"How do you feel about her? Do you like her?" Cloud tried to resume his comfortable embrace but it felt strange now. Why was she asking him about the one girl that had tried to stand between them?  
  
"I care about you" he said  
  
"You should care about her. She loves you. and I...I....I'm not going to be here forever you know. I have to get back. It's actually very lovely. Very peaceful. Everyone I missed is there. Except you. It's just that when I go, I want you to be happy. I could see you, after I died, and just knowing that I had hurt you that much .....it just couldn't stand it." He took her into his arms again and they sat not saying a word.   
  
Throughout the day the two lovers engaged in almost every recreation they could imagine. They went swimming. They went on a hike and picked flowers. Lunch was eating in a fancy outdoor cafe'. Cloud even took her shopping. Jokingly he tried on a dress himself. "remember this?" he asked her laughing. This time it was her turn to blush and be embarrassed. They even went dancing. Despite the fact that neither of them really knew how to dance, their devotion to each other made them the best looking couple on the dance floor. Before either of them knew it the day was fast ending and Cloud decided to take her to the most expensive restaurant in Midgar.  
  
As they sat down to order, Cloud noticed a sad look on Aeris's face. They knew each other well by this time if she wanted him to know, she would have told him.   
  
"Did you catch the look on that waiter? You'd think he never saw a man in a tuxedo with a metal hand before." Aeris tried to joke. Cloud smiled. Today was perfect. .  
  
"You know, for the most part, I hate wearing this stuff." he said clawing at his tux.  
  
"But you look so cute!" She smiled and played with the flower that served as decoration on their table. They paused for a moment looking at each other.  
  
"I'm sorry but I just have to ask you this. Do you miss it?" Cloud spoke  
  
"miss what?"  
  
"Being alive."   
  
With that Aeris jumped to her feet and ran out of the restaurant crying. Cloud jumped up and left after her. Pulling his tuxedo jacket off as he ran. They reached the meadow again before he was able to catch her.   
  
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. It was a stupid thing to say. Really." he said wiping her tears.  
  
"it's not that.....it's just... this is it for me. This is my last few hours here, Cloud. When the sunrises again. I'll be gone. And we won't get to see each other for a long long time." There was nothing Cloud could say to this. He put his arms around her and held her.   
  
"Tifa loves you, you know. I just want you to be happy after I go. Please? Please don't tell her I came back for you. I just want you to be happy and I think you could be happy with her."   
  
Cloud nodded he was speechless. He knew she had to go away, but just one day with her again. It wasn't fair.  
  
"Cloud, please look at me." he hadn't been aware that he was starring away. he looked down into her eyes. The tears had stopped falling. "Would you, please, .....make love to me." No words needed to be spoken. With his metal hand he undid her dress and let it fall to the ground. moments later they collapsed into each other.   
  
...........................................................................................................................................................  
  
The sky was staring to lighten but the sun itself had yet to rise. The two lost young lovers lay nude on the dew soaked meadow.   
  
"This was the greatest day of my life, Cloud. I'll always love you."   
  
"I'll always love you too, Aeris."   
  
She smiled and him as if to say 'but you can't anymore, I have to leave now,' but she didn't say anything. Despite his attempts to fight it, he was growing sleepy. He wanted to stay awake for her. He wanted to be there when she had to leave. To say goodbye. But sleep was approaching fast. Cloud reached out one more time to her and was lost to the realms of slumber.   
  
He awoke hours later in a patch of fresh wild flowers. They hadn't been there before he slept. Yawning he looked into the sunrise. It was going to be a beautiful day. He clutched a pink ribbon that had previously been in his lover's hair.   
  
"I love you" he whispered into the air. "and I'll try to be happy. For you". he stretched himself out and dressed in the sunlight. 'Perhaps I should go find Tifa,' he thought.   
  
  
  
'but not today'. 


End file.
